


Across the Stars: Forever

by AnnaCipactli12



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-01-17
Packaged: 2018-05-14 11:35:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5742256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaCipactli12/pseuds/AnnaCipactli12
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ben Solo never had any friends in his uncle's Academy. He was bullied, laughed at, but amidst all the chaos, he managed to find a friend in the ghost of a lonely ten year old whose life was one of tragedy and strangeness -not so dissimilar from what awaited him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Across the Stars: Forever

_**"There is a room where the light won't find you** _   
_**holding hands while the world comes tumbling** _   
_**when they do, I'll be right behind you** _   
_**So glad we've almost made it** _   
_**so sad we've had to fake it.** _   
_**Everyone wants to rule the world."** _   
_**~Everybody wants to rule the world by Lorde** _

**_"There is a lesson to be learned in dreams. Because no matter how much you dream something bad, the reality is always harsher." ~Confessions of an abused teen by anonymous_ **

 

 _"_ _Dad?"_ Ben asked to no one in particular. _"Yes?" The figure responded._  

 _"Can you hold me after the bad people come for us?"_  

 _"Of course, I will Ben. You know I will always be here for you."_ That response got him through the rough times, but eventually he always woke up and found himself in the same reality he was trapped in the moment he was born. 

He always felt that he was born for greatness, and that he destined to be the one to bring balance to the Force again. He felt that deep inside of him was the spirit of his grandfather, the great Anakin Skywalker (turned Darth Vader), guiding him. 

"I won't disappoint you grandfather, I promise. Show me again the power of the dark side." When people talked about the dark side, they always referred to it as if it was a bad thing. And said not to believe the legends but in his dreams Ben saw a world of possibilities, a world in which every child safe and loved, a world where friends didn't turn back on your friends and your loved ones didn't become your enemies. 

That was the world he wanted. But instead all he got when he opened his eyes and looked at the mask inside the glass in his uncle's office, was silence. Utter silence. 

He is not coming back, you know. A spirit said. "I know but I want him to come back. He is my grandfather and the only person who could have ever understood me." 

"You have many people who love you Ben, take pride in what you have. How many would love to be born with the parents you have." 

"Pff." Ben said. He didn't feel privileged. His parents fought over money, politics and just about everything all the time. And his friends just mocked him whenever he had the chance. 

Sometimes he thought of what life would be if he was handsome and smart like that girl Marina. Everyone loved her because she could write stories and talked nicely about everyone else. Ben befriended her and in the first year at the Academy, the two were very close until he discovered that she got mad over some petty squabble with some other student that she later blamed him because he decided not to take any part in. 

 _"I am sorry Marina. But I just wanted you and Oli-Na to get along. I didn't mean any of you to get mad at me."_  

 _"Well, we did."_ She said and pushed him to the ground, the other kids gathered around them and pointed fingers at him, laughter hard at him. _"Just go back to your freak planet Solo and leave the rest of us alone. Just because your granddaddy is the chosen one doesn't mean you are better than us."_ Then she waved her hand and a vase came flying in his direction. He flinched. _"Take your pity party somewhere else."_

He didn't have a pity party. Nobody pitied him for anything. When people asked 'who are you?' and he acted nervous, unsure of what he would say, they sniggered and yelled at their comrades not to talk to the weird kid. _"He is_ _amusing." "He is weird." "He's okay but he just repeats everything his parents say."_  

 _"No, I don't!"_ He always screamed in his head, but when he opened his mouth, the words never came easily as when he imagined them. Now that he was in the presence of the old ghost, he felt somewhat emboldened by his anger. 

"My parents don't care about me, they never had any children until they had me and like any pet, they want to pet me and groom me so I can be whatever they want to be. Because they don't know what it is like to love anyone." They weren't exactly model children. Well, his mother was to some extent, but her parents never saw her as a child anymore than she saw herself as their daughter. 

"Just because they find it hard to express their love doesn't mean that they don't love you. Adults sometimes have a hard time expressing themselves." 

"How would you know? You had the perfect parents. I bet they loved you." 

Silence. Ben turned to the ghost and saw that the girl's eyes turned puffy and Ben tried to make it better by telling her she was sorry but she ran away to hide in the janitor's closet as she always did when she was sad. "I am sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, it's just that you seem so perfect and I … just look at me. I am disgusting." 

The door opened and he came inside, closing the door behind him and activating the locks in case he got caught sneaking out of class again. "Oh Ben, you think it is so easy because you are the only one in this blasted academy who has experienced pain but let me tell you, my life wasn't always perfect. I wasn't always like this. I was once an adult like your parents too." 

"What happened then? You never talked to me about your old life." 

"Nobody ever showed any interest. I tried getting Marina interested but she just ignored me like she did when I was alive." 

Ben was confused at this. "What do you mean when you were alive? Marina is just ten years old like you and me. She couldn't have been around when you were alive." 

"Not in this life but in another life, in another galaxy she was my friend and I trusted her and she trusted me and we did bad things to each other." 

"Are you saying you are from the future?" 

"I know how it sounds." She said, wiping her tears. She sat closer to him and he welcomed her. When he saw her crying on the staircase after she witnessed a hologram of an old play by a Naboo philosopher, he befriended her. He knew from the start she was a Force ghost, but that didn't matter to him. 

She was the only friend he had, and as long as the two had each other nothing else mattered. 

"I didn't want to believe it myself after I died. I was just sitting in my couch, watching TV." She said then elaborated watching his expression. "It is an archaic device, sort of like the holos you have here, except the image is encased in glass." 

"We used to have things like that here, thousands and thousands of years ago." 

"I know, in my galaxy we never evolved past that. We did have the tools to do better but we never used them." 

"Why?"  It made no sense why a civilization would not want to use technology. 

The girl chose not to explain it to him, it was way too complicated and she doubted that Ben would understand. So she just shrugged and changed topics. "I know things seem bad now Ben but believe me, they will get better. You just have to believe me in yourself. Don't make the same mistake I made. Please don't." 

"But I don't understand, what did you do? Why are you here? You said that everyone you knew is gone or reborn. Why are you here?" 

"I already told you why." 

"But why you? That's all I want to know. Why you? And not everyone else? Why it must be you?" 

She sighed. "When I was twelve I saw this man or I thought it was a man, he showed me a picture of things burning outside my window. When I woke up I was so scared that I would see him again so I covered my head with my bedsheets but then-" 

"You saw him again." 

"No. Not him. Her. It was a she. She was dressed in white and she had a veil over her face. I was so scared that I could somehow see her despite me being covered, but I did and I asked her 'who are you?' and she told me 'the same person you are. Nobody'. Then she was gone." 

"Who was she?" 

"I never saw her again. After that, life went back to normal or as normal as it could be for a girl in a planet that was so apathetic to anything, that I became one of them and I stopped caring about my dreams, my goals in life and my visions." 

"Why?" 

"I don't know. I guess I just wanted to be normal like you. I wanted to please the crowds and my parents. You think I had great parents and it might seem to some of the kids who bullied you that I did but the truth is I didn't Ben. My parents were just as bad, if not worse than yours." 

"I am sorry." It never occurred to him that there was actually someone out there in a worse place than him. 

She seemed to guess his thoughts. She put her hand on top of his and smiled thinly at him. "There is nothing to be sorry about. We all have bad parents, some worse than others but that doesn't make us bad. You don't have to turn like your parents just because kids tease you to, or they make you feel like you must. Be your own man." She slapped his back. "And furthermore, be a kid. You are only ten! You have your whole life ahead of you. Don't let anyone manipulate you Ben. Always be yourself. If you have an ability, be proud of it and don't be afraid to show it off, no matter what it is." 

They both stood out and stepped out of the janitor's closet. It was time for lunch and if he knew his classmates well, he knew he would be spending thirty minutes in detention with his uncle, working on a ten page paper about why a Jedi must be responsible above everything. 

"Mira." He asked her before heading to detention room. "Will you stay with me? Always?" 

"Of course." 

"No matter what?" 

Her smile dropped for a second, just a second but then it was back on, and she said lastly. "I promise." And she saw him go. 

They didn't know why she was here. He didn't know her whole story, but he knew he could trust her and she had fallen in love with his inner self ever since she saw him, lurking behind the shadows, sneaking out of gym and classes so he could escape his classmates' bullying. He had been the only one who had been kind to her and didn't ignore her. Master Skywalker thought her insignificant and the other students could care less about her but Jacen or Ben as he was called now, befriended her and in the end (regardless of what happened in the future) that is all that mattered to her. 


End file.
